New Incompetence vs. LIHOP Framing Rolled Out...

 

Stale Berger news from October:

He’s back: Sandy Berger now advising Hillary Clinton

http://www.examiner.com/a-977346~He_s_back__Sandy_Berger_now_advising_Hi...

Bullshit. Berger wasn't afraid of Republicans. They're on the same team. He probably has good reason to be afraid of us, though.

NYT:

"Shenon reveals that commission executive director Philip Zelikow, a close friend of Rice, stopped staffers from submitting a report depicting Rice’s performance prior to 9/11 as “amount[ing] to incompetence.”

Reinforcing the "incompetence” ruse?

Shenon writes:

Attorney General John Ashcroft appears more interested in protecting gun owners from government intrusion than in stopping terrorism, and dismissively tells [acting FBI director Thomas] Pickard that he doesn’t want to hear any more about threats of attacks." (Think Progress)

Where has this been said before? Whose opinion is Shenon asserting here or is it his own? I can't find this as an opinion held by Pickard.

There's a followup to the Think Progress piece here, if you care:

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/02/02/dont-worry-isikoff-tells-yo...

"Now, to be fair, Isikoff does three more things that are perhaps designed to distract from the notion that Zelikow was a mole. First, he shows that Zelikow wasn't the only mole.
When Clarke finally did testify about his warnings to Rice, Shenon reports, White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and his aides feverishly drafted tough questions and phoned them in to GOP commissioners to undermine Clarke's credibility.

Then, he notes that George Tenet was remarkably quiet about all the "hair on fire" discussions he had with George Bush about impending terrorist threats.

Questioned in secret sessions by the panel, Tenet was unable to remember almost anything he said to Bush about Al Qaeda—or even that he had flown to Texas in August 2001 to brief the president at his ranch in Crawford.

Somehow, these details are supposed to refute the idea that the 9/11 Commission was designed to hide how badly Condi and Bush had botched 9/11? They prove that Zelikow wasn't the only mole, but they don't disprove that Zelikow was one of the moles for the Administration!

Finally, Isikoff makes a bid for the classic Republican defense: Bill Clinton did it."

Uh huh. Another neverending circle jerk of finger pointing.

He duh wun whut donnit, er uh, dint dunnit!